Hiking Goggle Lens Color

[cbcbd]

Mine are amber and the same ones I use for skiing. You don't really need polarized lenses but they are nice and most of the time you'll be using (you should still always have them) your goggles will be on trips above treeline or where the windchill is low enough to warrant covering your skin to prevent frostbite. This chart gives an idea of what I mean:


btw, regular sun glasses or glacier glasses used with face protection WILL fog up and become useless. If you are taking a face mask/balaclava you might as well take your goggles. Also, you can also use your goggles as sunglasses and skip taking the sunglasses, or just take regular sunglasses - last time I remember wearing my glacier glasses was the last time I was on a glacier - I have yet to hear of someone in the NE becoming snow blind - not the Ozzy kind

[Mike P.]

Nice chart, it proves both our points. At 5 degrees, you are okay until the wind approaches 25 MPH, if it's 10 the wind speed goes up to 50 MPH. In winter I'm usually avoiding those wind speeds that approach highway posted speeds, at least on the Northern Presidentials.

I've just had teh face mask on a coupel of times & the way I sweat, any eyewear fogs up although treating it a swim mask helps some. While I carry a hat (I don't know why) I more often times wear the balaclava since I rarely wear a shell. The last coupel of times I wore teh shell in winter, it was over just a T-shirt. The balaclava works like a hood, I just get to wear it with anything I want, shirt, vest or fleece layer.

I would imagime some presi-traverse folks may have come down with being snow blind & if not truely snowblinded, an hour above treeline on a cloudless day provides more sun exxposure than without, good, eye protection is important.

I like keeping the goggles, face mask & warmest gloves I have as part of an overall package. If I'm reaching for these, I need to be thinking what direction I'm moving in; in most cases, I probably should be thinking get down.